Fuel efficient cooking stoves are some of the most important tools being deployed in the developing world. Inefficient stoves cause indoor air pollution, damaging women and childrens' health. Fuel for inefficient stoves is expensive to purchase, or time consuming for people - usually women - to gather wood or dung to burn.
In refugee camps in Darfur, there's an additional reason why fuel-efficient cookstoves are important: when women leave the camps to collect fuel, they are vulnerable to attacks from rebel groups and Janjawid militants. By teaching women how to cook more efficiently, Yoo-Mi Lee and Mark Jacobs are helping Darfuri women avoid violence as well as feed their families. Lee reports on a recent demonstration of fuel-efficient stoves and techniques which helped women prepare meals of assida (their staple starch) with less than half the wood they typically used.
